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Former Omaha priest faces new charges in Texas

Father John M. Fiala, a former priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha, has been arrested for allegedly trying to hire someone to kill his accuser in a sexual assault case in Texas.

Father Fiala was being held in the Dallas County, Texas, jail on one count of solicitation to commit murder and two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, the Omaha World-Herald and San Antonio Express-News reported.

Father Fiala, 52, was accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy at gunpoint during private catechism sessions in 2007 and 2008, when the priest was serving at a parish in Rocksprings, Texas, located in the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

Ordained in 1984 by then-Archbishop Daniel E. Sheehan, Father Fiala ministered in the Archdiocese of Omaha until 1996, when he left to join the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity in Texas.

He served at seven parishes in the Archdiocese of Omaha from 1984 to 1995: St. Columbkille, Papillion; Sacred Heart, Norfolk; Christ the King, St. Joan of Arc and St. Peter, all in Omaha; St. Mary, Spencer; and St. Joseph, Wisner.

Father Fiala was removed from ministry in the fall of 2008 in the Archdiocese of San Antonio.